Back in 2006, Frank Dimant, executive vice-president of B’nai Brith, caused a considerable stir when he described Canada’s then-new prime minister, Stephen Harper, as the answer to the Jewish community’s prayers.

[…]

To many Canadian Jews, Harper is widely admired as the most unequivocally pro-Israel prime minister Canada has ever had, abandoning what his political, media and diplomatic critics describe as Canada’s historically more “nuanced” position in the Mideast as “an honest broker,” working primarily through the United Nations.

On Wednesday, which was Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, the Harper government again bolstered its standing among many Canadian Jews, when Canada’s delegation to the UN walked out of a speech at the General Assembly by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who described Israelis as “uncivilized Zionists.”

That’s just the latest in a long line of moves by the Harper government praised by mainstream Canadian Jewish organizations, as well as the Israeli government, which today appears to consider Canada its strongest international ally and closest friend.

Early in his first term as PM, for example, Harper became the first international leader to cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority after Hamas was elected to power.

[…]

In New York this week to pick up a “world statesman” of the year award from the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, Harper will meet with Netanyahu, unlike U.S. President Barack Obama who declined a face-to-face meeting with the Israeli prime minister. Despite opposition criticism in Canada, Harper won’t address the fall assembly of the United Nations, which in 2010 denied Canada a seat on the UN Security Council.

Instead, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, who has described Canada as Israel’s staunchest ally in the world, will address the UN in Harper’s place.

Critics of Harper have attributed his unrelenting support of Israel to his desire to draw Jewish voters away from the Liberals, to the power of the “Israel lobby,” to the fact many Conservatives are “Christian Zionists” who, based on biblical prophecy, believe Israel will play a key role in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

By contrast, many Canadian Jews see Harper as a principled leader in an increasingly unprincipled world.

And, indeed, the answer to their prayers.

We cannot thank Canada enough for standing by us in our hardest hours.

Jerusalem, capital of Israel? Not according to British press

The next piece of good news also falls under the international relations heading, with the media watchdog Honest Reporting succeeding in its efforts to make the British media admit that Tel Aviv is not Israel’s capital, even though they are still reluctant to acknowledge that Jerusalem is indeed Israel’s capital.

HonestReporting is taking a zero tolerance policy against media promoting the falsehood that Tel Aviv, and not Jerusalem, is Israel’s capital. We launched legal proceedings against The Guardian, forcing it, in August, to unequivocally state:

we accept that it is wrong to state that Tel Aviv – the country’s financial and diplomatic centre – is the capital.

But that was just the beginning. We promised that we would not rest until the Press Complaints Commission, that had originally sided with The Guardian, also issued a precedent-setting ruling that The Guardian had violated principles of accuracy when it stated that Tel Aviv was the capital of Israel.

The PCC has now done exactly that, stating:

the Commission concluded that … the unequivocal statement that Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel had the potential to mislead readers and raised a breach of Clause 1 (i) of the Editors’ Code of Practice.

Together with Asserson Law Offices, Israel’s leading English law firm, HonestReporting has successfully persuaded the PCC that Tel Aviv is not Israel’s capital. This sets an important precedent that brings to an end any further debate in the British media on this issue. Fatuous claims over the status of Tel Aviv as a means to delegitimize Jerusalem as Israel’s rightful capital will no longer be acceptable.

The PCC has sent a clear message for the UK media to uphold standards on accuracy while HonestReporting has demonstrated the efficacy of pursuing legal action when necessary to defend Israel against media bias.

Thanks to Honest Reporting’s efforts, also the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph amended their reports.

Kol hakavod to the team at Honest Reporting for their persistent efforts in getting world media to report accurately and fairly on Israel and the Middle East.

Converting cow manure into electricity

My last item for today is a load of, um… how shall I put it?… fertilizer.

Via the No Camels website, Green Prophet explains how Israel is planning to turn straw into gold manure into electricity:

Ridding Israel’s environment of the poop of chickens and cows is a fabulous way to usher in the Jewish New Year. Once it becomes fully operational in the next few months, the recently inaugurated Be’er Tuviya biogas plant will scoop up the waste of 14,000 cowsand in total roughly 15% of all chicken and dairy farms in the country. All that manure will then be used to generate electricity for thousands of homes.

Israel’s Largest Biogas Plant

Owned by Eco Energy, the $2.6 million Be’er Tuviya plant is not the first in Israel that will convert the energy of farm animals to biogas, but it is the largest.

Inaugurated last Monday, with local and national officials there to celebrate the event, the 4MW facility is expected to provide enough energy to power up to 6,000 homes – giving both the strained national grid.

The Be’er Tuviya Regional Council claims that biogas facilities also help to spare the environment by diverting livestock and poultry effluent from waterways and plugging odors, which attract flies.

The Manure will be collected from farms throughout the country and shipped in closed containers. Upon reaching Be’er Tuviya, it will be pasteurized and then stored in air-tight concrete tanks, where it will produce methane. This in turn will be used to generate electricity.

“One cow can produce enough manure in one day to generate three kilowatt hours of electricity,” according to Wikipedia, and “only 2.4 kilowatt hours of electricity are needed to power a single one hundred watt light bulb for one day.”

Converting cow manure into methane biogas could also reduce global warming gases by 99 million metric tons or four percent, according to the same source.

I wonder if this plant could convert some of the cr@p that is spoken about Israel in places like the Guardian or the UN into electricity. There would be enough to fuel the entire world! Wouldn’t that be a wonderful idea?

For all its domestic faults, the Harper government is pitch-perfect in its FP initiatives. The Canadian “internationaliste” left is positively seething at this situation- apoplectic! That is a Good Thing.

Ironically, our very own scaramouche is forced to blog incessantly of the naive/imbecilic/dhimmified pronouncements that come dribbling out of Canada’s “Official Jews” (yes, I’m looking at you Bernie Farber et al.). These idiots have truly swallowed the multi-culti Kool-Aid, To his/her credit, s. goes after these muppets with a deadly accuracy.

Hahahaha! multi-culti Cool Aid. That’s a good one Earl :-) We are living in strange days when America’s political support for Israel is waning, while Canada becomes a great friend.
Anne – thanks for the remarks on Jerusalem vs. Tel Aviv. For many of us out here in the non-ME world … it has been confusing. I actually have had people correct me – and insist that I should be saying Tel Aviv. I kid you not – these people utter these remarks with such sincerity … as if it’s a clear fact and everyone should just “know” this. It must be strange to find the capital of your own country being kicked around like it’s some sort of political football. Anyway, your explanation was enlightening and helpful.

If the people who “correct” you can’t bring themselves to admit that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, perhaps they can at least concede that it’s the seat of Government. The fact that many embassies are in TA (something these types love to point out) is completely irrelevant (as is the fact that most ambassadors live in Herzliya Pituah, and IIRC some embassies are there too)–ambassadors still have to travel to Jerusalem to present their credentials.

“IIRC some embassies are there [Herzliya Pituah] too”
I did indeed recall correctly.

The following embassies are in Herzliya Pituah:
Argentina
Congo
El Salvador
Guatemala
Venezuala

The following are in nearby (but not as posh) Herzliya:
Honduras
Peru
Thailand
Uruguay

The following are in Ramat Gan (one could make the argument that this is just a suburb of TA, but it’s still not officially TA… and I could also make the argument that Mevaseret Zion–see below–is a suburb of J’lem):
Belgium
Bosnia-Herzegovenia
Costa Rica
Eritrea
EU
Ghana
Ivory Coast (what an Israeli friend of mine called, in all innocence, “Tusk Beach”)
Jordan
Kenyan
Uzbekistan

And then there’s beautiful downtown Mevaseret Zion, just a stone’s throw from Jerusalem:
Bolivia
Paraguay

Pete, I’m glad, delighted even, that I’ve been able to set you right on such an important issue. The whole issue of refusing to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital basically stems from antisemitism. It’s form of delegitimization of Israel, and of the Jewish people’s connection to the country and to the city for over 3,000 years. It is vital to counteract this denial.

well done honest reporting. If the palestinians can continually lie about”facts (all they do is say the same thing over again ad nauseum until everyone believes its true) then its time we tell the truth ad nauseum until it gets into everyones heads. We always said -ah who cares no one believes us anyway ,but thats totally the wrong response. I love the article about the cows! If they can also do something with hot air! Then we could harness all the hot air speweed out at the UH and various other agencies! Just think we wouldn’t need the arabs oil anymore!